The Citizen, 1987-07-01, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1987.
Entertainment
Theatre review
Not a chance for a laugh missed
in Festival's Bordertown Cafe
Jerry Franken as the quiet Canadian grandfather tries to enjoy a cup of
coffee while his fun-loving American-born wife tells a story in a scene
from “Bordertown Cafe” which opened at the Blyth Festival last
week.
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Kelly Rebar came up with a great
idea for a play when she conceived
“Bordertown Cafe’’. She then
wrote a good play.
Bordertown Cafe is about a
family-run cafe just on the Cana
dian side of the border between
Alberta and Montana. Grand
mother is an American, grandfath
er a Canadian, mother was born in
Canada but ran off and married an
American trucker at age 15. When
the marriage broke down she came
home to help run the cafe and raise
her son. Now, with the son nearly
grown, the father has sent an
invitation for him to come and live
with him and his new wife in the
States. The boy must choose which
parent to live with.
There’s potential here for some
real insight into Canadian versus
American ways but the play never
quite delivers settling instead for
board strokes and big jokes instead
of subtle ones. Comparisons tend
to be on the level that Canadians
drink Molson’s Canadian while
Americans drink Budweiser.
Still, it’s a play most audience
members will love. There are
plenty of good lines and as usual,
Festival-veteran Loran Wilson as
Maxine, the fast-talking
American-born grandmother gets
more than her share. Talking to an
American trucker entering Canada
she tells him to get used to not
knowing what the speed limit is or
how hot it is now that he’s in
Canada.
Jerry Franken is the taciturn
Canadian grandfather who has
lived a stolid existence all his life
except for one moment of wild
inspiration that saw him light out to
the States to court a woman he’d
only seen in a picture but who he
convinced to marry him after only a
day and a half. He gets fewer lines
but lots of punchlines.
Laurel Paetz plays the boy’s
mother, torn by insecurity, worried
that she can’t possibly compete
with the more glamourous life her
ex-husband can offer as he drives
all over the continent having
adventure after adventure. How
can the dull old cafe where she and
her son live compare with the
spanking new house the father has
just moved into?
Kevin Bundy, a young actor
from Goderich who recently gradu -
ated from the National Theatre
School gets his first chance at a
leading role as the boy. The
youngster is torn between the
exciting life offered by his father
and the love of his mother. One
minute he turns on her, the next he
gets angry with the irresponsible
life his father has led.
Allan Stichbury’s second-act set
portraying the dining room of the
cafe is a fine reproduction of many
such truckstops across the country.
There are more problems with the
first act set of the kitchen and living
quarters however. At times it
appears by the action that some
conversations in one part of the
room can’t be heard in another part
but the set doesn’t suggest visible
enough barriers to make sense of
the interrupted dialogue.
Katherine Kaszas, who also
directed the play, has put much of
her energy since she became
artistic director atthe Festival, into
developing scripts closer to their
potential before they hit the stage.
Sometimes, however, you can only
take a writer as far as they’re ready
to go at the time of their personal
development. That may be the case
here. Itmaybethatin five years
Kelly Rebar will wish she could go
back and rewrite this play to get the
real potential out of her idea. In the
meantime many people will enjoy
the play but they’ll just miss what
Ms. Rebarcouldhavehadto say
with a little more patience and
sublety.
WINGHAM
Phone 357-1630 for 24 hour movie information
Playing from Friday to Thursday, July 3rd to 9th
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Sunday to Thursday one show each evening at 8 p. m. only
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